Audio 4:05
India's new governing party downplays suggestions militant Hindu-group will have a powerful voice

Michael EdwardsUpdated
Mon 19 May 2014, 9:50 PM AEST

As Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party are set to form a government with a massive majority, the new governing party is downplaying the suggestions that Mr Modi's right-wing Hindu links are a concern to many in India. He's a long time member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or the RSS, a militant Hindu-group that has long been accused of stirring up religious tensions across India. Many critics say the influence of the RSS will be felt in the way Mr Modi governs.

Transcript

MARK COLVIN: India's new governing party is downplaying suggestions that right-wing Hindu nationalist groups will have a powerful voice in the way it rules the country.

Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are set to form government with a massive majority.

But Mr Modi's right-wing Hindu links are a concern to many in India.

He's a long time member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or the RSS, a militant Hindu-group that's long been accused of stirring up religious tensions across India.

Many critics say the influence of the RSS will be felt in the way Mr Modi governs.

South Asia correspondent Michael Edwards reports from New Delhi.

(Sound of drums)

MICHAEL EDWARDS: The drums have been beating since Friday as Modi supporters celebrate the BJP's huge victory over the Congress Party.

It's a change of government and a change of philosophy.

Mr Modi's political heritage is in Hindu nationalism, but the man himself says he's been elected to serve all Indians.

NARENDRA MODI (translation): Brothers and sisters, our main aim is to work with everybody's support for everybody's growth. These are not idle words; this is the spirit and DNA of our work culture.

MICHAEL EDWARDS: Narendra Modi's involvement with right-wing Hindu groups began when he was a teenager and joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or the RSS.

Members of the RSS wear boy-scout like uniforms and are dedicated to upholding India's Hindu traditions.

They engage in morning exercises and carry out community work, but many people say it's a paramilitary organisation.

The RSS has established schools, clubs, and charities - all aimed at spreading a militant Hindu ideology.

It's been banned by the Indian government three times and one of its members, Nathuram Godse, assassinated Mahatma Gandhi in 1948.

In 1992, many of its members were involved in destroying the ancient Babri Mosque in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.

Hindu groups want to build a temple at the site, it's been a major source of religious tensions ever since then.

Mr Modi's party, the BJP, is widely regarded as the political wing of the RSS.

It put its full effort into getting Mr Modi elected, but it says it won't directly influence the BJP government.

Outside RSS headquarters in New Delhi, a senior leader of the group and the BJP, Venkaiah Naidu, denied the group will have any say in who gets to sit in Mr Modi's cabinet.

VENKAIAH NAIDU (translation): No there is not. We do not intervene in these matters. Everybody knows that I myself worked as the party chief. Such a thing never happened.

MICHAEL EDWARDS: Narendra Modi played down his Hindu nationalism during the campaign.

But the ghosts of the 2002 Gujarat riots still haunt him.

Mr Modi was chief minister of Gujarat at the time more than 1,000 people were killed when Hindus and Muslims clashed.

He's accused of not stopping the violence, most of which was Hindu mobs attacking Muslims.

Gujarat hasn't been troubled by any large scale problems ever since, and Mr Modi's supporters say he is a man who respects all Indians, so long as they work for the common good of the country.

Shri Ram Madhav is a senior RSS member who denies that Mr Modi is anti-Muslim.

The BJP has little support within the Muslim community and very few Muslim parliamentarians.

Academics such as Kamal Mitra Chenoy from Jawaharla University in New Delhi say Mr Modi has followed a strategy of keeping Muslims largely out of the BJP.

KAMAL MITRA CHENOY: He's following his own conservative, reactionary politics by keeping Muslims out of his party, from positions of any influence. So he hasn't changed his spots at all.

MICHAEL EDWARDS: Once interesting aspect of the election, though, is that the BJP did poll strongly in some majority Muslim electorates.